The Last Days of Il Duce — Domenic Stansberry

Domenic Stansberry's award-winning novel tells the story of Niccola Jones, a broken-down man plagued by his obsession with his brother Joe's ex-wife Marie. Set in the old Italian neighborhood of North Beach in San Francisco, the novel flashes back and forth between their childhood days in the 1950s and events thirty years later. The kids are adults now, and everything has changed.

Nick's story begins when Joe is murdered, igniting in Nick an unquenchable desire for revenge. The crime also awakens Nick's memories of days gone by, particularly his own illicit feelings for Marie. But the price of passion is as costly now as it was for Nick thirty years ago; for The Last Days of II Duce is as much about the secrets of the past as it is about the sins of the present.

Dark, elegantly written, intricate, and astonishing, The Last Days of II Duce is a superb novel in the classic noir tradition.